It's CRAZY That The U.S. Kicked This Startup CEO Out Of The Country

Cruisewise CEO Amit
Aharoni is the face of an immigrant entrepreneur in Silicon
Valley, and knows what it feels like to be kicked out of the
country after his visa application was denied.

He had no choice but to pack his bags and leave his company
Cruisewise behind. While
Aharoni flew to Canada and stayed with a friend,
he continued to keep tabs on his San Francisco team by
holding meetings via Skype calls.

Aharoni admits he was lucky, even though the whole ordeal
lasted six weeks.

While not all cases of visa denials make national
headlines, Aharoni went through something all foreign-born
innovators must face if they hope to start companies in the
United States and create jobs. They must apply for a visa, and
wait to see if it is accepted or denied.

For every high-skilled visa, five additional
jobs are created. Yet, there's a disconnect in the
visa process. Usually immigrant entrepreneurs have to be
sponsored by a family member or work for an American company, so
they can get permanent residency before starting their own
company.

Or entrepreneurs can apply for the H-1B visa, like
Aharoni did. It allows workers sponsored by
employees to fill jobs in "specialty occupations" that require a
B.A. or higher.

"The H-1B is designed to match foreign workers to the needs of
American companies. Until now, this visa has not been available
to sponsor the self-employed, including founders and owners of
companies," according to the Partnership for a New American
Economy.

The United States only gives out 65,000 H-1B visas a year and
another 20,000 to those who graduate from U.S. universities. Last
year, the visas ran out in October or November.

Aharoni is worried the U.S. could start losing talent to other
countries, if visa denials persist and barriers for starting a
company continue to remain high.

"Many countries such as Singapore and Chile are removing barriers
to come and live in those countries. They realize this is how you
create jobs. The U.S. is doing the exact opposite. They have a
pool of talent that wants to come to here. Before 2008, the U.S.
didn't really need to think about how to be competitive for
talent. Now that it is fighting to keep jobs, it should be
welcoming talent," he said.

Cruisewise
had a much better experience in Chile: it was the first team to
go to the Startup
Chile incubation program, which offered $40,000 and a
temporary 1-year resident visa for foreign
talent.

"It's a nice contrast to what the U.S. is doing,"
Aharoni said. "We were very early stage back
then, with just an idea and no resources. The program provided us
the resources and runway we needed so that we could focus on one
thing - building the prototype. That same prototype eventually
allowed us to raise money when we came back to the US in January
2011."

Cruisewise closed a round of $1.65 million in April 2011
from Index Ventures, NEA, SV Angels, and among others. It launched
in the U.S. on February 14. And Aharoni has had time to
settle back into his old desk in his San Francisco
office. However,
not everyone has a happy ending like Aharoni.

Today,
Aharoni received an email from an immigrant entrepreneur who is
experiencing what he just went through: Karishma Baijal, VP of
marketing for Weddington Way, is booking a ticket back to India
after she was denied a visa because the position she was applying
for wasn't considered a specialty occupation. Weddington Way
raised more than $2 million and is generating $2 million in
revenue, and while she played a huge part in that growth -- that
didn't matter in the final decision.

"My reason for the denial was on the same basis as Karishma's
denial," Aharoni said.

Initially, the decision was made based on the fact that a CEO at
Cruisewise shouldn't require an advanced degree. "But it's a
grey area," he said. "I never that it would ever be an issue. My
company was legitimate, I secured investment, and created jobs.
But I was forced to leave the country."